We must pray for Nigeria, says Archbishop

Friday 6th June 2014

Prayer must come first, but we must also support the Nigerian government and keep up visibility of the country's current crisis, says Archbishop of Canterbury in Radio 4 interview

Speaking to Radio 4 about his prayer meeting this week with Nigeria's president, the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby said prayer is "the key thing we can do" when it comes to supporting the country, which he said is facing "a very major crisis".

The Archbishop, who flew to be with Nigeria's president and Anglican primate on Wednesday to express his personal pain and condolence at the ongoing terrorism the country faces, including the abduction of more than 200 schoolgirls, said he felt "deep sorrow" for all those suffering in the country.

Archbishop Justin told the Today programme this morning: "The key thing we can do is pray; prayer changes things, as a Christian I’m deeply, deeply convinced of that. We need to support the Nigerian government in every way we can, the British government is doing all that it possibly can, as are others. And I think we need to keep the visibility up."

Commenting on terror group Boko Haram, the Archbishop said: “[They]are a group of the utmost evil, the militants who are dealing out death right, left and centre, without hesitation and without mercy, concentrating a lot on Christian churches but also attacking Muslims in the local population in vast numbers. It’s an extraordinarily difficult situation to get on top of."